A. EXPECTATION B. SCIENTIFIC C. INTENSITY D. DISAPPEARANCE III. REA...

expectation

scientific

intensity

disappearance

Read the passage and choose the best option for each sentence or question:

The white rings of Saturn, the second largest planet in the solar system and named for the ancient Roman

god of agriculture, were first seen by the Italian astronomer Galileo in 1610. He interpreted the rings as being

two smaller bodies, but in the late 1650s Huygens correctly theorized that there was indeed a ring. It was not

until the mid-19

^th

century that J.C Maxell demonstrated mathematically that these rings were composed of

minute and connected particles. In 1980, the Voyager I spacecraft showed that the ring system was highly

structured.

This system is vast, some twenty one times the diameter of the Earth, but it has a maximum thickness of

only two kilometers. Spectroscopy, the analysis of radiated light to determine the elements present, show that

the particles in the system consist of water ice, which is likely to cover rocky silicate cores. The ring may have

originated an debris from satellites or comets, though another theory holds that they may consist of material

left over from the formation of the planet itself.

Apart from the myriad ring particles, themselves satellites of course, there are at least twenty-four larger

satellites proper orbiting Saturn. This means that Saturn has the most extensive satellite

among the nine planets of our solar system. More than one-third of Saturn's satellites have been discovered in

the past twenty years. While in general less strikingly varied than the moons of Jupiter, those of Saturn do

provide one notable exception. Titan. This satellite, second only in size to Jupiter's Ganymede, is unique in the

solar system in having a substantial atmosphere.